Simple organic whole food

Approaching the start date: GAPS diet

April 9, 2011

I’m learning a lot and doing many new things. I plan to take the plunge in a few days and start the Intro diet. It will be interesting. I’m already feeling hugely better off of the identified allergic foods (by blood work) but the Intro diet will eliminate much much more so that the gut can heal. Food will slowly be re-introduced as I tolerate them over the next 2 years. The goal is to have no allergies by the end of it and be able to eat whatever I want — though healthful, whole food will always be what I eat. Right now I can’t eat a lot of whole foods that would be healthful if I was healthy!

So today:

One of the cooking fats we use on the diet is clarified butter. Milk solids are out for me as is all other dairy for now. Homemade yogurt is introduced fairly early on but milk products will be completely out for me for a good long while otherwise.

Ghee is the Indian name for clarified butter. On the GAPS diet it must be made with cultured grass-fed butter. I thought I was going to have to do without ghee as grass-fed butter costs a fortune.

I got lucky however and found a wonderful brand of grass-fed butter available for a third of the usual cost at my favorite over-stock gourmet market! I’ve bought about 25 lbs of it!

I’ve got several pounds clarifying in the oven right now. Clarified butter keeps on the kitchen shelf for many months. It doesn’t have to be refrigerated. The rest of the butter I’ve put in the freezer for future clarifying.

Our garden is taking shape. So far we’ve got chard, peas, dandelion, parsley, cilantro, green beans, and cucumbers planted. We will add tomatoes, zucchini and a few other things that are yet to be determined.